Thanks to a landmark conservation agreement between environmental groups and the Tejon Ranch Co., we don't worry as much these days.

Now, an independent conservancy is there performing research and planning conservation. Teenagers from Los Angeles recently joined the many others seeing wonders long reserved for special ranch guests. Thirty-eight miles of the Pacific Crest Trail are being routed through Tejon, and there's talk of a new state park.

It could have been very different.

When shareholders began pressuring the ranch for more development, conservationists could have gone to court like we usually do - an improper gamble with a landscape this important.

Even if we had tied up projects, the ranch could have sold off its 1,000 legal parcels, creating a checkerboard of development that would hurt wildlife and habitat.

Fortunately, all parties were willing to reason out a sensible solution. Legal posturing wasn't the answer.

We didn't give up much. The conservation groups agreed not to oppose three developments on 10 percent of the ranch, but only after 20 months of negotiations in which we won countless concessions. These developments still must undergo full public review and are subject to all environmental laws. Nothing in our agreement restricts others from this process.

No development at all would have been preferable, but that is wishful thinking given what is happening on private land all around Tejon.

We have neither given our approval to the developments nor undermined the public process. Ours is a conservation agreement, not a development agreement.

Entering negotiations, the California condor was Audubon California's foremost concern, and our decisions were based on the best science. We removed development from key ridges and secured funding for condor protection. The ranch's condor conservation plan will also undergo rigorous scrutiny by federal regulators and the public.

This goes for all other aspects of the developments as well. For instance, the ranch will have to demonstrate to regulators that it has secured the necessary water for its projects without diverting natural water from habitat.

This is a landscape truly worthy of California's great naturalists like John Muir and William Dawson - and future generations will thank us for saving it.